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Thursday, October 20, 2011

More charms for a swap on AFTCM!! Our bracelets are going to be great!!

Fragment charms was the theme this month so I used these plexiglass shapes as my base. The little rectangular ones were clear - the larger ones were red!!

These were fun to create!!

From my collage box I chose little images and papers for each side of my charms. I used Dimensional Magic to glue the focal element to the back of the plastic shape so it would show through the front.I glued the back paper/image to the back of the focal image so it would show at the back - a double sided charm. It was fun to cut out shapes and create small collages!!

You can see here the fronts of three charms on the left and the back of the same charms on the right.

I coated the sides and backs of the charms with Dimensional Magic to nicely seal in the images. How do you do that without holding them, you ask?? I attached the front of the charm to the top of a push pin using double sided tape. Planted the push pin into a strip of styrofoam which gave me something to hang on to while I was applying the finish. Worked like a charm!! You need to make sure the charm is level to prevent the finish from pooling but you don't get your fingers gummed up and they can stay there until they are completely dry!!

I drilled holes near the top edge for a jump ring and my charms were finished!! I have mine packaged and ready to go to my partner in the mail today!!

I made handmade paper several times this year so my box is overflowing!! Several batches were such nice bright colours - yellow, blue and pinks which I created using SU cardstock scraps donated to me by several local demonstrators. The paper is beautiful and I wanted it to be prominent in my cards so I decided to use a full sheet (8.5" x 5.5") as my card base. I most appreciate the deckle edge on handmade paper but the sheets were not all exactly the right size so I pondered the task of trimming all the errant edges by hand which is how I normally do it. That was going to take a while!! After a bit of experimenting I came upon the idea of using my distress tool on any edges of the paper that had to be trimmed with my cutter. Worked beautifully!! Nice straight edges with a soft deckle look in a fraction of the time!!

I layered three embossed cardstock die cuts - Tattered Flowers TH (SX) and attached them to my card front with a brad. Trimmed my colour printed greeting and glued it into place!!

Love the way they turned out and my favorite is the pink and green combination!!

I love creating serendipity backgrounds for cardmaking!! It is a process that does not require too much attention and only a few supplies - paper scraps, glue and a substrate. A great activity when you are feeling less than inspired but still would like to do something creative. You can check out these other projects I have created using this technique here or click the Serendipity Label - lower right hand side of my blog.

I created a few full sized pages earlier this year and in September dug out several kits I had prepared for a class a couple of years ago and decided to just get them made up.

I silver or gold embossed my sheets before cutting them into squares and rectangles. Each card has 4 squares and 2 half squares. There are a variety of layouts you can use but I decided I would offset the half ones - one top right, other bottom left. Because each one is like a little piece of art I usually use minimal embellishments. This time, I added a small embossed butterfly punchie!! Click on the photo and check out the cool way I made a body, head and antenna for it!! I saw this on a blog recently - sorry not sure where!! Here's how you do it - fold your cording in half, place the butterfly's midsection inside the fold, tie two knots at the top of the midsection and trim the ends. Voila!! - a body, a head and antenna!! Not sure who invented this cool idea but it works so well!!! I attached my butterfly with 3D foam tape just below its body so the wings can be folded out.

I love the glitz and bling of these cards!! Would be great for Christmas cards in red, green and gold!!

I have a couple of links to tutorials on my April 2011 blog post here!! Have fun!!

Have been seeing step cards on blogs for a while and thought I would give it a go!! I watched a few videos, checked out a few tutorials and decided for my first attempt I would create only one step. You can check out this tutorial over at Splitcoast Stampers which gives step by step instructions for a center step card. They are some times also referred to as stair cards if you want to search for a few examples or tutorials.

Once I figured out my dimensions, I designed a layout with the cutting/folding lines and printed them on the back of the cardstock which made the process of creating the cards in class much less time consuming.We made one cut and scored three fold lines. The last fold (bottom of the step) was created during the process of getting the card to fold flat. Worked out quite well!! To decorate the front panel I cut a small piece of decorative paper into three little rectangles, trimmed the tops into a slant, and positioned them making sure there was enough room for the flames above them. Glued them into place and trimmed any over hang at the bottom. Added wicks with a black sharpie marker and glued the flames into place with 3D foam tape. The flames are actually wing punchies from the SU bird punch!! Love versatile tools! I added some colour to my flames to give them a bit of dimension. I used watercolour on the top one and chalks on the bottom one - some used pencil crayons in class. Tie fiber to the card front overlapping the candles. With no place for a regular insert in this card I decided to add a flap with a greeting so there would be a place to write a message. I created this cool digital stamp!! I really liked the one put out by SU recently in their Delightful Dozen set so I decided to create my own. I used Corel Draw to lay out all the words in different fonts. Really happy with the way it turned out!! Can see a few more of these greetings in my future. Printed them in colour on white cardstock to coordinate with the card front, folded them and glued the back flap to the back of the step. The front flap can be tucked inside the step as well.

Love these rainbows!! I was inspired by this card from Splitcoast Stampers!! I dug through my cardstock scraps and started cutting little rectangles in seven different colours - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink. Made a pile of each colour and then started matching them up - some more pastel, some more muted and others very strong and bold. I made a few specialty cards with what I had left over - all pinks or blues for baby cards and this green, orange and yellow combination for a Halloween card!! We did all sorts of embossing on our cards last night - some did just the elements others did the whole card front!!

I gave each person a scrap of white paper to glue their rainbow pieces to which allowed them to emboss the rainbow as an element before gluing it to the card. The greeting is laser printed onto white and then the pieces were trimmed apart (3/4" and 1.25") After embossing the elements were glued to a black card front. A bit of ribbon, a die cut, a stamped image or a few rhinestones would all be great 3D elements to add a bit more dimension to these cards!!

These are a quick and easy card once the rainbow pieces are cut. I have a lip on my trimmer which easily allows me to cut 3/4" strips so it was fairly quick to cut the scraps into strips. I really enjoyed matching up the colours but you could easily plan your colour combination in advance and only cut the pieces you need.

Consider red and green for Christmas cards!! A simple 3D element or some ribbon and you could make a bunch of cards in one day!! Are you inspired?? Make a few cards to add to your stash today!!

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About Me

Welcome!!
I am a paper crafter that enjoys creating cards and working on a wide variety of paper projects including handmade paper, paper decorating and altered books. I am exploring mixed media and collage with a view of using my own photographs and art in my projects. Recently, I have branched out into a bit of fabric and stitching.
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